Dick Allen

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT DICK ALLEN - PAGE 5

The package inside that not-so-plain wrapping remains a mix of self-deprecation, unconventionality and passionate desire to succeed. He has joked about wanting to be the first general manager to fire himself. He has started the tittering by hiring a pantheon of old players, few of them from the classic mold of baseball lifers (Jose Cardenal? Dick Allen!) as coaches or instructors. He has set himself up for quite a fall--or quite a summer. "It's fun to be able to have the control of the club he has, but if the team doesn`t do well, it will be a pain in the butt," says broadcaster Don Drysdale, who is also a Harrelson confidant.

On the night Jose Abreu clobbered his 24th and 25th home runs of the season, White Sox manager Robin Ventura marveled at how the ball comes off Abreu's bat. "When he hits it on the barrel, it just continues to go," Ventura said. "It's like helium balls that just continue to float. " Three months into the season, that swing has done nearly as much damage as any in baseball. Abreu, the 27-year-old first baseman from Cuba, was named American League Rookie of the Month for the second time in three career months in June.

AMERICAN LEAGUE Angels: Ace John Lackey will begin a rehab assignment with Class A Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday. Athletics: ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports that the A's are considering signing designated hitter Frank Thomas, who was released by the Blue Jays over the weekend. ... Recalled pitcher Dallas Braden from Triple-A Sacramento. Indians: Placed right-handed pitcher Jake Westbrook on the 15-day disabled list with a pulled muscle in his side. Westbrook is 1-2 with a 2.73 ERA. This will be his fifth trip to the DL. To fill the roster spot, Cleveland recalled outfielder Ben Francisco from Triple-A Buffalo.

Now that the Cubs have moved on from the Jake Peavy saga, general manager Jim Hendry turns his focus on what was supposed to be his main objective of the winter meetings. Sources outside the Cubs organization continued to insist Thursday that free agent Milton Bradley is the outfielder the club is hoping to reel in. How would the controversial outfielder be received in Chicago if he was signed by the Cubs? "Cubs fans would love him," said Frank Thomas, one of Bradley's former teammates in Oakland.

Reggie Jackson was holding court for the media during batting practice when Jose Canseco ambled over, put his arm around Jackson and began kidding around. There was affection and admiration in Canseco's actions. In his own way, Canseco was paying homage to the future Hall of Famer sometimes simply known as "Mr. October." Jackson pinch-hit to lead off the 10th inning Friday night, answering the occasional chants of "Reg-gie, Reg-gie." He responded with a line single to right.

Dick Allen had a .292 lifetime batting average, smacked 351 home runs and earned honors ranging from National League Rookie of the Year to American League Most Valuable Player during his 14-year baseball career. Yet he's not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Nor is ex-Minnesota Twins outfielder Tony Oliva, shortstop Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers or many other star players of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. To Naperville author and lifelong baseball fan Neil Shalin, the omissions are a disgrace, and he's shed light on them in a new book, "Out by a Step: The 100 Best Players Not in the Baseball Hall of Fame."

The problem with baseball players today is there aren`t enough of them with a few screws loose. That's the view from former Boston left-hander Bill Lee, one of a couple dozen ex-players who visited Wrigley Field Saturday for an old-timers game sponsored by a baseball card company. What has happened to all the great characters of the past, guys like Lee, Jimmy Piersall and Jay Johnstone, both of whom were also on hand? "Today they`ve all got their agents, lawyers and mouthpieces," said Lee. "And they tell the players: `Don`t say anything controversial for the next three years and I`ll get you $1.3 million a year.

With one swing of his mighty 40-ounce bat and a few cogent, well-chosen words, Dick Allen buried a widespread myth. The myth says former baseball stars, guys nearing or past 50, should not gather and play in old-timers` games. Let the fans remember them as they were, goes the myth. Don`t reveal how time has eroded the wondrous skills. Allen, 48, demolished that theory when he jerked a pitch from Fergie Jenkins into the left-field bleachers for a three-run, first-inning homer that keyed a 10-0 American League victory over the Nationals Monday in the Equitable Old-Timers game at Wrigley Field.

Education is a good thing. So are bobblehead dolls. Give the White Sox credit for combining the two Sunday when they give away Minnie Minoso bobbleheads at Comiskey Park. There will be thousands of kids asking older folks about Minoso--who is he, anyway? These questions come at just the right time. The Sox are raising public awareness about Minoso and his legacy in the month in which 60 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America are reconsidering whether he should be in the Hall of Fame.

If Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield are inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame next month--and they've got our vote--we can safely say that the ceremony will be the last of its kind: two former Minnesota Twins enshrined simultaneously. What's more--or what's less, depending on your view of the troubled national pastime--Puckett would qualify as a lifelong member of the Minnesota Twins. That accomplishment figures to stand a lot longer than Alex Rodriguez's recent landmark salary of $252 million.